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28 Acres...no clue where to start!

34K views 177 replies 52 participants last post by  In2une 
#1 ·
So my mom's work (private school) is aquiring a lot that is 28 acres. On this 28 acres is magnolia trees bordering the roads, a barn, a house, pool house, pool, fences, and lots of grass.

I am wanting to give a proposal to get it all cleaned up and then a bi weekly maint. on the property. I only have a walker right now so if I did aquire the job I would most likely buy a 60 or 72" Exmark with the 38hp Kohler. I just don't know where to start at for pricing?

I will get some pics up tomorrow as I looked at it tonight and was too dark for detailed pictures.
 
#3 ·
What I would do is figure out how much you need to make an hour. From that figure how many acres you can mow in an hour given your equipment/equipment you will buy. If you have to trim be sure to include that in price on top of you per hour mowing. If you plan on buying new equipment and having some one using your walk behind be sure to include their wage. hope this helps
 
#4 ·
None of it will be done with a walk behind. It's almost like pastures. some of it is flat, some of it is hilly. Pics will come tomorrow just to give everyone an idea of what it actually is.
 
#5 ·
Buy a used 72" ZTR. Don't get in over your head for 1 account and be toast if you lose it.....and will you have to bid it or do you have the thing on lockdown due to your family connection.

On 26 acres, you can't charge normal mowing fee of $65 an hour.....that's tractor/brush hog acreage.

Most likely I would imagine the school would bid something like this out?
 
#7 ·
I do not have this on lockdown and they asked for a proposal. They are unsure if they are going to get a company to maintain it or do it in house. I personally am thinking about $1250 a cut or $2500 a month. That will be me and probably 2 other guys. I figure I can run a nice 60 or 72 ztr and the other guys can do the shrubs/weedeating/blowing/etc.
 
#10 ·
They'll laugh at your price. Obviously you don't have the equipment on hand or employee's and are trying to live a pipe dream. Splash some water on your face and wake up. The part where you don't have a clue where to start is a red flag. It's over your head. Don't be getting mad at me for spilling the cold hard facts. I'm solo, I don't care if they said they'd pay me 3k a week I would turn it down.
 
#13 ·
I do not have this on lockdown and they asked for a proposal. They are unsure if they are going to get a company to maintain it or do it in house. I personally am thinking about $1250 a cut or $2500 a month. That will be me and probably 2 other guys. I figure I can run a nice 60 or 72 ztr and the other guys can do the shrubs/weedeating/blowing/etc.
I did a 22 acre campground for $1850 a cut and it wasnt worth it. We had 3 Ztrs on it and it took a full day.
 
#14 ·
They'll laugh at your price. Obviously you don't have the equipment on hand or employee's and are trying to live a pipe dream. Splash some water on your face and wake up. The part where you don't have a clue where to start is a red flag. It's over your head. Don't be getting mad at me for spilling the cold hard facts. I'm solo, I don't care if they said they'd pay me 3k a week I would turn it down.
Half the people on here would push mow it for $3k/week.
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#16 · (Edited)
I bet it was a good dream thou...

Let me give you another clue, you're not the only one who has no idea what they're talking about...
Many years ago I was given the opportunity to bid on an office park that I was told was between 2-4 acres in size...
And like yourself, if they said it was 28 acres I took their word for it because I had no way of knowing otherwise.
BIG mistake.

Not until now was I able to figure out how big the place actually was...
Total lot size, 8 acres.

And I have nobody else to blame.
So how do you know if it's 28 acres, or 50, or maybe it's 80?

You need that kind of experience where you can tell, or it will fry your tail.
 
#18 ·
I did a 22 acre campground for $1850 a cut and it wasnt worth it. We had 3 Ztrs on it and it took a full day.
We do one property that is 13 acres, very little trimming, with 2 Z's and a Walker and it takes us around 4 hours. I think 28 acres will take more than one day with just one Z and a Walker. Good luck to you, but if they do put it out to bid don't expect to beat out an LCO with the right equipment to do the job.
 
#19 ·
Here's the key thing PRIVATE SCHOOL..... unless it's some type of charter school with loaded of high end dollars, they will be looking for absolutely cheapest price possible. We dealt with 2 private schools for a couple of years, both of them around 4, 5 acres a piece, both were total pains and had to constantly hear it about funds and the such.

Is all 28 acres going to be mowed?
 
#20 ·
I do not have this on lockdown and they asked for a proposal. They are unsure if they are going to get a company to maintain it or do it in house. I personally am thinking about $1250 a cut or $2500 a month. That will be me and probably 2 other guys. I figure I can run a nice 60 or 72 ztr and the other guys can do the shrubs/weedeating/blowing/etc.
Another dream. He wants to be the one riding on the mower because it's a bigger mower then he's using now.
 
#21 ·
Around here we get $65 an acre for mowing, no matter how big or small
Around here the first acre is around $50 and each additional acre is around $25 to $30.

My own lawn is 2 acres and I guarantee I can get a different crew every day to quote me $75. Not talking low ballers either. Crews with 4 or 5 guys in huge rigs with enclosed trailers and 2 ton dump body trucks.

So lets say on the high side for 28 acres would come out to $860 to $900 to cut 28 acres. Now we are talking 3 60"+ ztr's going and 2 guys trimming. Knock it out quick enough to still have time left to do another small commercial job in a single day.
 
#22 ·
They'll laugh at your price. Obviously you don't have the equipment on hand or employee's and are trying to live a pipe dream. Splash some water on your face and wake up. The part where you don't have a clue where to start is a red flag. It's over your head. Don't be getting mad at me for spilling the cold hard facts. I'm solo, I don't care if they said they'd pay me 3k a week I would turn it down.
Another dream. He wants to be the one riding on the mower because it's a bigger mower then he's using now.
Geez, lighten up. You can give advice without insulting the guy.
 
#23 ·
I'll throw this in. I know the area I know basically your set up and what you normally do. I gonna guess the grass is bahaia so even with weekly cuts your gonna have seed heads always a pita to cut down decent. A 72 or 60 plus a 48(guessing) walker is not going to cut this place quickly. Buying 10k of equip for one account is going to put you hurting. Don't forget most lcos running around are running walkers to bag, so even if you have lots you can put the bigger mower on are your clients gonna want you to not bag? What then another 3k for a bagger? Then what on and off everytime you go out there. Thats gonna add 2 hours to each time. I would say stay away. Columbia county is all modtly small lots not too many guys have got the equip to run big places. Stay where you can make $ this would just be a way to loose it.

Now saying all that if I wasn't going to stop taking new customers in ga I would tell you to go for it, b/c when your out of biz I could oick them up.

Anyway I wouldn't do thats just me and I have equip I could run it, not as easily as I'd like but I could do it and make $ but unless you got 3 72s I wouldn't touch it.
 
#24 ·
Geez, lighten up. You can give advice without insulting the guy.
I agree. We all have dreams, some materialize, most don't, but that doesn't mean we should stop having them. If no one throughout history ever tried to do a job they weren't ready for, we'd still be reading by candlelight and riding horses to work. The guy comes on here asking for advice so he can make an educated decision as to how to proceed, and there are always those who immediately say "you aren't ready". Perhaps he isn't, but at least he is willing to try.
 
#26 ·
Do the financial analysis on the job as best you can. How much will the unit(s) cost you? How much does that figure to per month? How much is a labor hour to you? Gas, etc?Narrow all that down to a per hour cost to run your business and then take a thorough look through the property. I mean really walk through it. Now you can estimate what it will take to get the job done and how it fits into your schedule. Then adjust those financial calcs to crank out a number that works for your business (and add margin). There is your bid price. If it's too high? That's fine - no reason to lowball and lose money. I'm more of a risk taker myself, so I would encourage you to put some work into it and give it a try, but that's just my opinion.
 
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